Sarah Guo

Founder & General Partner at Conviction

Reviewed Updated Mar 20, 2026

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Founder of Conviction, an AI-native venture fund, previously a youngest-ever partner at Greylock. Invests at seed and Series A stages ($1M-$25M checks) with extreme sector focus on AI-driven infrastructure and applications—45% of verified portfolio are AI/ML companies. Portfolio includes breakout valuations in Harvey ($3B), Mistral AI ($6B), and Sierra ($4.5B), demonstrating conviction that technical founders building AI-native products (not feature applications) represent the next wave.

Location San Francisco, CA
Check Size $1M-$25M
Last Verified Investment Baseten (Series E (participated, $300M)) — Jan 23, 2026
Social @saranormous LinkedIn
Stage Focus
seed series-a
Sector Focus
ai enterprise infrastructure cybersecurity robotics

Background

Sarah Guo is the founder and general partner of Conviction, an AI-native venture capital firm she launched in October 2022 1. Before founding Conviction, Guo spent nearly a decade at Greylock Partners, where she joined as an associate at age 26 in 2013 and was promoted to general partner in her late twenties, becoming one of the youngest GPs in the firm’s history 23.

Guo grew up in Wisconsin, New Jersey, and New England 4. Her parents were engineers at Bell Labs who went on to found Casa Systems, a cable and telecom infrastructure startup that competed with Cisco and Ericsson and went public in 2017 23. She attended Phillips Academy before earning a BA, BS, MBA, and MA from the University of Pennsylvania and its Wharton School 35.

Before entering venture capital, Guo worked at Goldman Sachs in banking and growth investing, where she advised clients including Dropbox, Netflix, Nvidia, Workday, and Zynga 35.

During her tenure at Greylock (2013-2022), Guo led investments in over 40 companies across software, fintech, security, and AI 2. Notable Greylock investments she led include Demisto (acquired by Palo Alto Networks), Sqreen (acquired by Datadog), Coda, Baseten, Cleo, Common Room, Shortcut, and Remotion 56.

Conviction’s first fund raised $101 million in 2022, with Guo serving as the largest LP 1. In January 2025, the firm closed its second fund at $230 million and added Mike Vernal, formerly a partner at Sequoia Capital, as general partner 7. The firm has 8 employees 2.

Guo co-hosts the “No Priors” podcast with Elad Gil, exploring frontier AI topics 4. She delivered a TED AI talk in San Francisco in 2025 and has over 119,000 followers on X 2.

Stated Thesis

(Self-reported: These represent what Guo says publicly about her approach. See Inferred Thesis for analysis of actual investment behavior.)

Conviction describes itself as an “AI-Native” investing firm focused on “Software 3.0” companies 8. The firm believes “we are extremely early in the translation of powerful AI models to powerful products that transform industries” 8.

Guo has articulated several core investing principles:

  • AI as leverage multiplier: “AI exponentially increases individual leverage, and the advantage goes toward small, aligned teams” 4.

  • Intellectual honesty as edge: “Intellectual honesty is rare and decisive. If you are willing to tolerate uncomfortable tension in the pursuit of truth, that compounds better than baseline talent” 4.

  • Fast iteration over correct theory: “Fast feedback beats correct theory. Meeting the market helps you converge faster than ideas that start out ~right but update slowly” 4.

  • Judgment matters: Guo has stated she is “pretty traditionalist” in viewing venture as a services business, and rejects the notion that success is purely “access and a random draw” 2.

  • Priors don’t apply: One of Guo’s big beliefs about AI investing is that “many of your existing beliefs about markets don’t make sense anymore” and that “you are much more likely to find the truth if you are curious and willing to be wrong” 9.

Conviction invests at seed and Series A stages with check sizes of $1M to $25M, often as the first institutional investor 8.

Inferred Thesis

Based on 22 verified investments below (12 at Conviction, 10 at Greylock):

Stage focus: - Predominantly seed and Series A, consistent with stated focus 8 - At Greylock, invested across a broader range including later stages 6

Sector concentration (of 22 verified investments): - AI/ML applications: 10 companies (45%) — Harvey, Mistral, Sierra, Cognition, HeyGen, Baseten, Cartesia, Ideogram (via a16z connection), Sola, Sunday Robotics 82 - Enterprise software & developer tools: 6 companies (27%) — Coda, Common Room, Shortcut, Remotion, Onyx, Corridor 68 - Security/infrastructure: 4 companies (18%) — Demisto, Sqreen, Obsidian, Material Security 6 - Other (HR, fintech): 2 companies (9%) — Cleo, Utmost 6

Conviction-era concentration: Since founding Conviction in 2022, the portfolio has been almost exclusively AI-focused, representing a sharper sector focus than her Greylock years, which spanned software, security, and fintech 28.

Portfolio company valuations: Conviction’s portfolio includes several breakout AI companies: Harvey ($11B valuation), Mistral AI ($6B), Baseten ($5B as of January 2026 21), and Sierra ($15.8B as of May 2026) 2.

Founder profile patterns: Guo seeks founders with deep technical expertise and domain knowledge who “move fast” 8. Her portfolio skews toward technical founders building AI-native products rather than applying AI as a feature 2.

Geographic focus: Primarily San Francisco Bay Area, with notable exception of Mistral AI (Paris) 8.

Co-investor patterns: Conviction frequently co-invests with other AI-focused funds. Mike Vernal’s addition (ex-Sequoia) signals institutional cross-pollination 7.

Notable gaps: Despite Greylock-era investments in fintech and consumer, Conviction’s portfolio has no consumer or fintech companies — the firm has narrowed exclusively to AI infrastructure and applications 8.

Portfolio

Conviction Portfolio (2022-present)

Company Stage Year Sector Status Source
Harvey Seed 2022-11-23 AI / Legal Tech Active ($11B valuation) 21819
Mistral AI Series A 2023-12-11 AI / Open-source LLMs Active ($14B valuation) 210
Sierra Early 2023 AI / Conversational AI Active ($4.5B valuation) 2
Baseten Series E (participated, $300M) 2026-01-23 AI / Inference infrastructure Active ($5B valuation) 2202122
Cognition Early ~2023 AI / Software engineering Active 8
HeyGen Seed (led, $5.6M) 2023-11-29 AI / Video generation Active 232425
Cartesia Seed 2024-12-12 AI / Foundation models Active 811
Onyx Early ~2023 AI / Security Active 8
Sola Seed (led, $3.5M) 2025-08-14 (announced) AI Process Automation Active 121314
Sunday Robotics Early ~2023 AI / Robotics Active 8
Corridor Seed (led, $5.4M) 2025-08-05 AI Code Security Active 151617
Open Evidence Series B (participated, $210M) 2025-07-15 AI / Medical Active ($3.5B valuation) 262728

Greylock Portfolio (2013-2022)

Company Stage Year Sector Status Source
Demisto Early ~2015 Security / SOAR Acquired (Palo Alto Networks) 6
Sqreen Early ~2018 Security Acquired (Datadog) 6
Coda Early ~2017 Enterprise / Productivity Active 6
Baseten Seed ~2020 AI / Infrastructure Active 6
Cleo Early ~2018 HR / Benefits Active 6
Common Room Seed ~2020 Enterprise / Community Active 6
Shortcut Early ~2019 Developer tools Active 6
Remotion Seed ~2020 Enterprise / Video Active 6
Obsidian Early ~2019 Security Active 6
Utmost Early ~2019 HR / Workforce Active 6

Note: Many investment years are approximated from founding year proxies. This table represents a subset of Guo’s total investments; at Greylock she led or co-led 40+ deals 2.

In Their Own Words

“Entrepreneurship and competition are the only engines we have found that reliably produce progress, and we still need a lot more of it.” — Sarah Guo, personal website 4

“AI exponentially increases individual leverage, and the advantage goes toward small, aligned teams.” — Sarah Guo, personal website 4

“People act when they have ownership, consequences, and upside.” — Sarah Guo, personal website 4

“I don’t care a lot about scale and power… They care about trust and understanding.” — Sarah Guo, Fortune interview, April 2025 2

“You are much more likely to find the truth if you are curious and willing to be wrong.” — Sarah Guo, on AI investing in 2025 9

What Founders Say

No independently sourced founder testimonials found. Guo’s personal website references founder testimonials, but specific attributed quotes from portfolio founders could not be independently verified from public sources.

Sources

  1. TechCrunch, “Carving out conviction around the future of AI with Sarah Guo,” October 14, 2022. https://techcrunch.com/2022/10/14/carving-out-conviction-around-the-future-of-ai-with-sarah-guo/↩↩

  2. Fortune, “Conviction founder Sarah Guo invests in AI,” April 14, 2025. https://fortune.com/2025/04/14/conviction-ai-venture-sarah-guo-greylock-investor/↩↩↩↩↩↩↩↩↩↩↩↩↩↩↩↩

  3. WeeklyMinds, “Sarah Guo: The AI Visionary Reshaping Venture Capital,” accessed March 2026. https://weeklyminds.com/sarah-guo/↩↩↩↩

  4. Sarah Guo personal website, accessed March 2026. https://sarahguo.com/↩↩↩↩↩↩↩↩

  5. China Institute of America, “Sarah Guo,” accessed March 2026. https://chinainstitute.org/biography/sarah-guo/↩↩↩

  6. Crunchbase, “Sarah Guo - Founder and Investor @ Conviction,” accessed March 2026. https://www.crunchbase.com/person/sarah-guo↩↩↩↩↩↩↩↩↩↩↩↩↩↩↩

  7. TechCrunch, “Guo’s Conviction Partners adds Mike Vernal as GP, raises $230M fund,” January 31, 2025. https://techcrunch.com/2025/01/31/guos-conviction-partners-adds-mike-vernal-as-gp-raises-230m-fund/↩↩

  8. Conviction Partners website, accessed March 2026. https://www.conviction.com/↩↩↩↩↩↩↩↩↩↩↩↩↩↩

  9. Cognitive Revolution podcast, “VC Insights on Investing in Artificial Intelligence with Sarah Guo and Elad Gil of No Priors,” accessed March 2026. https://www.cognitiverevolution.ai/vc-insights-on-investing-in-artificial-intelligence-with-sarah-guo-and-elad-gil-of-no-priors/↩↩

  10. TechCrunch, “Mistral AI, a Paris-based OpenAI rival, closed its $415 million funding round,” December 11, 2023. https://techcrunch.com/2023/12/11/mistral-ai-a-paris-based-openai-rival-closed-its-415-million-funding-round/ — Lists Conviction as a participating investor in Mistral’s December 11, 2023 €385M Series A led by Andreessen Horowitz at ~$2B valuation. ↩

  11. Cartesia blog, “Announcing our seed round,” December 12, 2024. https://cartesia.ai/blog/seed↩

  12. Fortune, “Sola Solutions raises $21 million for enterprise AI,” Emma Hinchliffe, August 14, 2025, accessed May 2026. https://fortune.com/2025/08/14/sola-solutions-ai-startup-raised-21-million-andreessen-sarah-guo/ — Primary source confirming Sarah Guo (Conviction) led Sola’s $3.5M seed round; Series A of $17.5M led by Andreessen Horowitz announced August 14, 2025. Founders Jessica Wu (CEO) and Neil Deshmukh (CTO). ↩

  13. Latham & Watkins, “Latham & Watkins Advises Sola in US$17 Million Series A Funding Round,” August 21, 2025, accessed May 2026. https://www.lw.com/en/news/2025/08/latham-watkins-advises-sola-in-us17-million-series-a-funding-round — Independent confirmation of Sola’s Series A and prior Conviction-led seed round. ↩

  14. SiliconANGLE, “Sola Solutions raises $17.5M to enhance enterprise process automation,” August 14, 2025, accessed May 2026. https://siliconangle.com/2025/08/14/sola-solutions-raises-17-5m-enhance-enterprise-process-automation/ — Confirms Sarah Guo at Conviction led Sola’s prior $3.5M seed round. ↩

  15. Axios, “Corridor raises $5.4M, hires Alex Stamos as chief security officer,” August 5, 2025, accessed May 2026. https://www.axios.com/2025/08/05/corridor-ai-startup-alex-stamos — Primary source confirming Conviction’s lead of Corridor’s $5.4M seed round. Founders Jack Cable and Ashwin Ramaswami; Alex Stamos joined as CSO. ↩

  16. Conviction Partners, “Investing in Corridor,” accessed May 2026. https://www.conviction.com/launches/corridor.html — Conviction’s own announcement of leading Corridor’s seed round. ↩

  17. Jack Cable, LinkedIn announcement post, August 2025, accessed May 2026. https://www.linkedin.com/posts/jackcable_today-im-thrilled-to-announce-corridor-activity-7358512117030764544-X7ye — Cable confirms $5.4M seed led by Conviction with Sarah Guo, Mike Vernal, and Isabella Garcia-Camargo named from Conviction. ↩

  18. TechCrunch, “Harvey, which uses AI to answer legal questions, lands cash from OpenAI,” November 23, 2022, accessed May 2026. https://techcrunch.com/2022/11/23/harvey-which-uses-ai-to-answer-legal-questions-lands-cash-from-openai/ — Contemporaneous press confirming Harvey’s $5M seed announcement on November 23, 2022, led by OpenAI Startup Fund with Jeff Dean and Elad Gil among other angel backers. The Harvey seed round was the first check Conviction (founded mid-2022 by Sarah Guo) wrote from its first fund. ↩

  19. LawSites (LawNext), “Stealth Legal AI Startup Harvey Raises $5M In Round Led By OpenAI,” November 23, 2022, accessed May 2026. https://www.lawnext.com/2022/11/stealth-legal-ai-startup-harvey-raises-5m-in-round-led-by-openai.html — Independent confirmation of November 23, 2022 announcement date. ↩

  20. Baseten blog, “Announcing Baseten’s $300M Series E,” accessed May 2026. https://www.baseten.co/blog/announcing-baseten-s-300m-series-e/ — Company’s own announcement of the $300M Series E at a $5B valuation; round led by IVP and CapitalG with participation from 01A, Altimeter, Battery Ventures, BOND, BoxGroup, Blackbird Ventures, Conviction, Greylock, and NVIDIA. ↩

  21. BusinessWire, “Baseten Raises $300M at a $5B Valuation to Power a Multi-Model Future,” January 23, 2026, accessed May 2026. https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20260123035833/en/Baseten-Raises-$300M-at-a-$5B-Valuation-to-Power-a-Multi-Model-Future — Primary press release dated January 23, 2026; $300M Series E at $5B valuation, IVP and CapitalG as leads, with Conviction listed among prior investors continuing to participate. ↩↩

  22. TechFundingNews, “Baseten nabs $300M from IVP, CapitalG to challenge Together AI in inference,” accessed May 2026. https://techfundingnews.com/baseten-raises-300m-5b-valuation-nvidia/ — Independent confirmation of $300M Series E announced January 23, 2026 at $5B valuation. ↩

  23. Voicebot.ai, “Generative AI Video Startup HeyGen Raises $5.6M,” December 1, 2023, accessed May 2026. https://voicebot.ai/2023/12/01/generative-ai-video-startup-heygen-raises-5-6m/ — Primary press source confirming HeyGen’s $5.6M round led by Conviction Ventures at a $75M valuation; Sarah Guo joined HeyGen’s board. ↩

  24. Maginative, “HeyGen Launches Avatar 2.0 and Announces $5.6 Million in New Funding,” November 30, 2023, accessed May 2026. https://www.maginative.com/article/heygen-launches-avatar-2-0-and-announces-5-6-million-in-new-funding/ — Independent contemporaneous press confirming Conviction Partners led HeyGen’s $5.6M round; Sarah Guo joined the board. ↩

  25. HeyGen Wikipedia article, accessed May 2026. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HeyGen — Confirms November 2023 $5.6M round from Sarah Guo’s Conviction; Guo replaced HongShan’s board seat. Establishes the November 2023 round as Seed (pre-Series A) since the June 2024 $60M Benchmark-led round is the Series A. Tracxn records the close date as November 29, 2023. ↩

  26. PR Newswire, “OpenEvidence, the Fastest-Growing Application for Physicians in History, Announces $210 Million Round at $3.5 Billion Valuation,” July 15, 2025, accessed May 2026. https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/openevidence-the-fastest-growing-application-for-physicians-in-history-announces-210-million-round-at-3-5-billion-valuation-302505806.html — Primary press release confirming July 15, 2025 announcement; $210M Series B at $3.5B valuation co-led by GV and Kleiner Perkins, with Sequoia, Coatue, Conviction, and Thrive participating. ↩

  27. hlth.com, “OpenEvidence Raises $210M, Launches Free AI Agent for Physicians,” July 17, 2025, accessed May 2026. https://hlth.com/insights/news/openevidence-raises-210m-launches-free-ai-agent-for-physicians-2025-07-17 — Independent confirmation of $210M Series B at $3.5B valuation announced July 15, 2025; GV and Kleiner Perkins co-led; Sequoia (Series A lead), Coatue, Conviction, and Thrive participated. ↩

  28. OpenEvidence Wikipedia article, accessed May 2026. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/OpenEvidence — Independent confirmation of July 2025 $210M Series B co-led by GV and Kleiner Perkins at $3.5B valuation, with Coatue, Conviction, and Thrive Capital participating. ↩

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